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Hurler Harder dazzles, fans 12, Nevada edges El Do, 6-4
Nevada High senior Branden Harder was amped for his first career varsity start on the mound, on a crisp Thursday evening at Lyons Stadium.
Harder, who has logged many innings of relief-work during his prep career, struck out 12 over seven innings, propelling Nevada to a 6-4 non-conference victory over rival El Dorado Springs.
Harder was nearly unhittable through five innings, with his only hiccup coming in the top of the sixth.
Trailing 6-0, Colton Collins’ bases-clearing triple sliced El Do’s deficit to 6-3. The Bulldogs then scratched across another run, as Wyatt Graves drove in Collins from third.
Leading 6-4 in the top of the seventh, with Harder looking to secure the complete-game victory, Logan Armstrong’s highlight-reel worthy diving play at shortstop snuffed out a sure base hit for the inning’s second out. Harder then slammed the door on El Do, striking out Jake Schieffer for the game’s final out.
“Credit to (El Do’s) hitters, they made some adjustments in the sixth,” said Nevada head coach Danny Penn. “They were spraying the ball, and had good at-bats. It wasn’t anything Branden was necessarily doing wrong. It’s just that third time through the lineup, they did a nice job with adjusting to what he was trying to do.”
Harder was throwing heat, topping out around 87-88 miles per hour. “Early in the game he was just pumping fastballs,” noted Penn.
Harder and catcher Braeden Hinton were on the same page, according to Penn.
“I have a lot of confidence in those guys, I know they enjoy working together,” said Penn of his senior duo.
After mixing in an occasional curveball over the first two innings, Harder’s usage of the breaking ball spiked in the third and fourth innings.
“His curveball had very good depth and bite on it,” summed up Penn. “Both his fastball and curve were working early, and I think in that sixth inning, he was just getting a little too amped up. When he came off the mound after the sixth, I asked him if he was good to go for the seventh, or do we need to go somewhere else? And he was adamant that he wanted to finish the game.”
Penn said he was surprised when he learned first-hand from Harder prior to the game, that it was his first-career prep start.
“We use him as a reliever, because we can always count on him to throw strikes in dicey situations,” explained Penn.
Speaking of dicey situations, Penn praised Armstrong for his elite defensive play in the seventh.
“Without that diving play in the five-six hole, and Logan getting the force-out at second base, the inning gets potentially a lot more dicey. So Logan doing that, allowed Branden to finish the game.”
Added Penn: “We made a couple errors in the late innings, but I’m proud of the guys for the way they competed today.”
At the dish, Nevada did the bulk of its damage in the opening frame, touching up El Do Starter Derek Hays for four runs, keyed by Dalton Gayman’s 2-out RBI base-knock. Gayman then scored on a wild pitch to put the Tigers in front, 4-0.
Sophomore Grant Miller led off the second with a triple into the right-center field gap, and was plated on Armstrong’s fielders choice groundout, as the Tigers led 5-0.
Nevada’s final run came in the third, as Hinton mashed a Hayes offering to the warning track, resulting in a ground-rule double. Hinton was then brought around on Gayman’s one-out RBI-single to right.
Gayman logged a multi-hit day, finishing 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI. Miller concluded 1-for-2 with a triple and run scored.
Nevada’s junior varsity team was also in action, toppling El Do in dramatic fashion as Rayden Mather’s walk-off RBI double in the bottom of the fifth, handed the Tigers a 9-8 victory.
Up next
Nevada (6-5) puts its three-game win streak on the line today, as the Tigers match-up with Center High School in Kansas City. The contest was originally slated as a home game for Nevada, but the West Central Conference foes re-arranged their schedule, due to an earlier rainout.